Manchester City’s long-running financial case has reached its defining stage, with an independent commission finding the club guilty of serious Premier League financial rule breaches across nine seasons, from 2009/10 to 2017/18. The scale of any punishment remains undecided, but the ruling places the final disciplinary phase at the centre of English football’s wider relationship with UEFA regulation and the European game.
The commission concluded that City used sham commercial arrangements involving a number of partners to overstate income and understate expenditure. It found that some sponsors were responsible for only part of the stated value of their deals, with the balance funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd, the club’s owner.
Further artificial arrangements were used to reduce reported operating costs, the findings said. These included other agreements financed by ADUG and a circular deal involving Fordham, an entity which purchased image rights for City players and was also funded by ADUG. The overall effect, the commission determined, was to raise declared revenues and cut recorded costs by more than £900 million over the relevant period.
As a result, City submitted inaccurate accounts and withheld the club’s true financial position from auditors and football regulators, the ruling found. The commission said the purpose of the conduct had been plainly to get around Premier League requirements.
Had the relevant transactions been reported correctly, City would have exceeded spending limits by a substantial margin under both the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules and UEFA’s club licensing and Financial Fair Play framework. The case therefore reaches beyond Manchester, touching the regulatory standards that govern clubs seeking to compete across Europe.
A sanction still to be decided
The commission also upheld three of four allegations concerning City’s conduct during the Premier League investigation. Over an inquiry lasting four years, it found repeated failures to meet duties of cooperation and good faith, concluding that there had been concerted attempts to delay and obstruct the process.
Richard Masters, the Premier League chief executive, said the principal decision had established what occurred at City during the period in question and described systematic breaches over almost a decade. He said the league had been right to pursue the matter despite a difficult and lengthy procedure.
Masters added that enforcing rules agreed by the clubs themselves was essential to maintaining a competition that is fair and competitive for teams and supporters. He called the proceedings and ruling the most consequential disciplinary case in Premier League history.
The commission’s findings do not yet settle the matter. The sanction for the breaches remains to be determined, with the Premier League saying it intends to move quickly through the remaining process in search of legal certainty for the competition, its clubs and supporters.
